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Human trafficking, and especially sex trafficking, in Mexico has attracted a significant amount of attention in recent years, as the security crackdown there has forced drug trafficking organizations to broaden their criminal portfolios. As a result, the country’s cartels are becoming increasingly involved in human trafficking and sexual exploitation, which is made easier by a lack of strong penalties for these crimes. As congresswoman Rosi Orozco told the Washington Post recently, “If narcotics traffickers are caught they go to high-security prisons, but with the trafficking of women, they have found absolute impunity.”

But sex trafficking is not simply a problem in Mexico. As the U.S. State Department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report notes, the majority of human trafficking victims worldwide become products of commercial sexual exploitation, and the phenomenon is widespread throughout the western hemisphere. In fact, a 2010 report by Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls found that Mexico ranked fifth in terms of the estimated number of trafficking victims in Latin America, putting the country below the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Brazil and Argentina.

In Mexico, as in much of Central America, sex trafficking is closely linked not only with organized crime but also with the migrant smuggling trade. Because of the region’s close proximity to the United States, the flow of migrants ensures a ready supply of new recruits. The economic and legal vulnerability of their situations makes them even easier targets.

Sex trafficking is not just a purely economic phenomenon, however. Some victims are drawn into the trade due to more complex reasons, and then are psychologically conditioned into staying. As InSight Crime has documented, such is the case in Honduras, where young women are increasingly falling prey to false “modeling agencies” which serve as fronts for sex trafficking rings. Seeing an opportunity to fulfill aspirations of fame, young women contact the organizations, when they are often told to arrange an in-person “audition,” alone. From there, a cycle of psychological and physical abuse begins, and these women are often kidnapped or tricked into working in brothels in other Central American countries.

Elsewhere in Central America, human trafficking is more closely associated with tourism, especially “sex tourism,” whereby individuals (generally wealthy North American or European men) travel to a country with the explicit purpose of purchasing sex, frequently with minors. This trend is particularly visible in Costa Rica, which is a major tourist destination. Although efforts have been made to clamp down on this sex trade, and break. its ties with the conventional tourist industry, they have generally been unsuccessful. In 2004 the country made headlines for mandating that employees in the tourist industry be made to accept a new “code of conduct” which discourages them from assisting foreigners in finding sex. However, the strong economic incentives offered by the business made this relatively unsuccessful.

Eight of the largest metropolitan regions in America have seen a decline in the percentage of white inhabitants over the last decade, signaling a majority of minorities in some of the USA’s biggest hubs, including New York and DC.

New census data analyzed by the Washington Post reveal that non-Hispanic whites are now a minority in 22 of the 100 biggest urban areas in America. While metropolises such as Los Angeles, San Antonio and San Francisco have seen minority-majorities prior to 2010, now NYC, San Diego, Las Vegas and Memphis have witness the change firsthand, as Black, Asian and Hispanic populations in those areas outnumber that of white residents.

The data suggests that the population of whites shrank in only 42 of the 100 cities profiled, but each one of the metro regions saw an overall decline in the percentage of whites per capita.

Researchers say that the generally younger crowd of Hispanics and Asians outnumber the percentage of whites still in their childbearing years, and are thus reproducing at a greater rate. Eight percent of adults in America over the age of 65, for example, are non-Hispanic whites. Preliminary data from the 2010 US census revealed earlier this year that the number non-Hispanic white children being born in America had taken a backseat to an increase in minority births in the last decade, and that whites would become the minority by the roughly 2050. In some of the largest cities in America, however, that change has already occurred.

While the change is mostly evident in large cities itself, the change is showing up more and more in the outlying suburbs of the metropolitan regions. In metropolitan areas, minorities were responsible for 98 percent of the population growth in the decade leading up to the 2010 census.

“What’s happened is pivotal,” says demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution who conducted the analysis. “Large metropolitan areas will be the laboratories for change. The measures they take to help minorities assimilate and become part of the labor force will be studied by other parts of the country that are whiter and haven’t been touched as much by the change.”

Workforce aside, demographers note that that the politics associated with minority groups could show a change in control in some formerly white-dominated locales. The Post notes that in Fairfax, Virginia, for example, a moderate Republican community has switched over to a Democratic-minded city. In the Northern Virginia Regional School District, enrollment between 1995 and 2010 rose by nearly 119,000, though only 1,000 of those students were white.

The report shows that foreign investors didn’t lose their appetite for U.S. government debt in May, even though the U.S. reached its US$14.3 trillion borrowing limit that month. With European governments mired in that continent’s debt crisis, U.S. Treasury securities are benefiting from being seen as a less-risky alternative.

“U.S. Treasuries are still looked upon as being the safest assets in the world,” Jay Bryson, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote in note to clients. “Investors do not seem to be the least bit worried about a U.S. default as yields continue to move lower.”

The U.S. government sold five-year Treasury notes at a record low yield Wednesday. Yields on longer-dated Treasury’s rose sharply after a large increase in orders for durable goods last month.

// The five-year notes were priced to yield 1.029 percent, about the same as those bought on the open market. The results show that demand remains strong for short-term government debt. Bond yields rise as their prices fall.

Stronger economic news pushed yields of longer-dated notes and bonds higher and their prices lower. A 4-percent increase in orders for long-lasting manufactured goods decreased demand for longer-dated Treasury’s, which are more sensitive to inflation. Stock prices rose for most of the day, decreasing demand for relatively low-risk investments. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 144 points at 11,321.

The yield on the 10-year note rose to 2.29 percent in afternoon trading, from 2.15 percent late Tuesday. The price fell US$1.22 for every US$100 invested.

The yield on the 30-year bond rose to 3.65 percent from 3.49 percent. The price fell US$3 for every US$100 invested.

The yield on the 2-year note rose to 0.23 percent from 0.21 percent.

Wednesday’s US$35 billion auction was the second of three scheduled for this week. On Tuesday, the government sold US$35 billion of two-year notes, also at record-low yields. It plans to sell US$29 billion of seven-year notes Thursday.

What the hell are you doing? Will China lose its Money invested in the USA, and should they withdraw it before the S…. hits the fan?

With the Congress and the US President not being able to work-out a solution to resolve this ongoing problem the USA is in imminent danger of becoming a failed state. To much bickering is going on and with a President hell-bent on destroying this country, what is to be expected?

With concerns amounting regarding the decline of the American dollar, China is pressuring Congress to take action before the US economy is driven to default. As the biggest holder of US Treasury debt, China stands to be massively impacted if the debt ceiling isn’t raised which could lead to grave global consequences.

In a statement published on their website, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange writes, “We hope the US government will take responsible policies and measures to boost global financial market confidence and respect and protect the interests of investors.”

As of April of this year, China held around $1.15 trillion in Treasury debt, making it the largest creditor of the States. Japan holds onto the second largest sum of American debt at around $912 billion, with the UK coming in third at $346 billion.

Should America be driven to default, the US would postpone payment to China and the American credit rating would drop. From there, the trillions of US dollars belonging to China would decline in value, which not only angers the Chinese for obvious reasons, but also means that goods produced overseas could cost more in America, impacting export initiatives out of the Far East.

Even if a default doesn’t occur, the US credit rating is already in jeopardy. Standard & Poor’s announced last week that there is a 50 percent likelihood that they will downgrade the US credit rating over the next few months, even if Congress can vote to raise the debt ceiling before the August 2 deadline imposed by the Treasury. “The positions of the administration and the Republican leadership are still very far apart,” S&P Managing Director John Chambers says to the Washington Post. “The tone of the debate has made us wonder whether a compromise can be achieved.”

Both Moody’s and Fitch have also threatened to cancel the current triple-A credit rating as attempts at negotiating on Capitol Hill and in Obama’s White House have gone unresolved.

President Obama said on Friday that Congress would need to come up with a plan before the weekend was over, yet the doomed deadline is still looming with debt discussions at a deadlock still.